British teachers are among the best paid in Europe – but work fewer hours in the classroom, an international report found.

The average primary school teacher in England earned £27,832 in 2011, much more than in France, Spain and Italy. Scottish primary school teachers take home even more – £30,168.

Yet English primary teachers teach for just 684 hours a year, compared to 936 in France and 770 in Italy.

Classroom: Teachers in England receive the equivalent of £40 for every hour spent teaching, leaving them ranked sixth overall by the OECD

Age: UK teachers are also younger than most other countries, with almost two thirds under the age of 40

It means that while an English primary teacher earns £40.69 per hour spent in the classroom, a French teacher gets just £22.27.

Only three other countries in Europe have higher pay rates for primary school teachers.

The revelation comes in a report by
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which
represents industrialised nations.

It will add to concerns that public sector staff are hugely overpaid compared to their competitors.

Our GPs are also among the best
remunerated in the world.Despite the findings, a poll yesterday by
teaching union NASUWT revealed that 53 per cent of teachers say their
job satisfaction has fallen over the last year.

Some 78 per cent said their biggest
concern was workload and 45 per cent were unhappy with pay levels.
Teaching unions are preparing for nationwide strike action before the
end of the year.

Pay: Teachers in Luxembourg are the best paid which their Slovak counterparts receive the least

Time: Teachers in Chile spend 1,120 hours-a-year teaching, much higher than the rest of the OECD's list of countries

YOUNG PEOPLE IN UK SPEND ALMOST 2.5 YEARS UNEMPLOYED

Young people in the UK spend almost two-and-a-half years out of work on average, longer than those in many other developed nations, a major international study shows.

Many young people will be out of the job market because they have 'given up, more or less', according to Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s deputy director for education and skills.

He warned that the 'biggest challenge' to the UK at this time is to help those youngsters who do not have decent qualifications and struggle to find work.

Overall, UK young people aged between 15 and 29 expected to spend 2.3 years on average either unemployed or out of the labour force entirely, OECD figures for 2011 show.

This is higher than in many other countries including the Netherlands (1.1 years), Iceland (1.2 years), Norway (1.3 years), Australia (1.7 years) and Germany (1.7 years).

The report, entitled Education at a
Glance, shows that across the OECD, the average wage for a primary
teacher with 15 years’ service in 2011 was £23,976.

Across the OECD, teachers spend 786 hours teaching, compared to 684 in England.

It means an English teacher’s hourly
rate of £40.69 is behind only Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, the US and
Canada. The OECD average is £30.50.

The study found that English teachers
earn a great deal more at the start of their careers than the OECD
average, although this lead falls behind the average as they reach the
end of their career.

The report also shows that our
teachers are among the youngest in the West. Almost a third are under
30, against an OECD average of 13 per cent.

Andreas Schleicher, the OECD’s deputy
director for education and skills, said: ‘Primary school teachers in
England are particularly well-paid compared to others, but in the UK
class sizes are larger.

‘The English system is to give
teachers tougher work because of larger classes, but gives them fewer
teacher hours so they can give better lessons for larger groups.’

Last night a Government source said the OECD report showed the teaching unions were making unrealistic demands.

He said: ‘The teaching unions should stop damaging children’s education by calling strikes.
‘Instead they should be demanding teachers spend more time teaching and focusing on the key academic subjects.

‘We can either start working as hard as the Chinese, or we’ll all soon be working for the Chinese.’